In response to a comment on the by Nicola Jane Dalgleish to The Order of The Way » Blog Archive » Way thought for the day ,“ 17.5.2011
( “Great trees grow from the smallest shoots; a terraced garden, from a pile of earth, and a journey of a thousand miles begins by taking the first step.”)
Sharon Lassiter posted:
“It didn’t “merge” it branched out – very different things. And Taoism isn’t an intellectual philosophy. It is rooted in intuition and the human understanding of living in tune with nature.
Reply: It has both branched out and merged many times and in many cultures, as in Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam, as interpretation was added and meaning subtracted as the various priesthoods of religion took root, in the adaptation of their designed belief systems.
If you hold to the idea that The Way/Tao is not an intellectual philosophy, am I correct in saying that you think, as intellect refers to the mind, reasoning and common sense, that it must belong to all those things that are not related to such thinking?
From our way of thinking, the application of the term intellectual, which has its root in the word intellect, seemingly as though it is some form of abnormal thinking, simply flies in the face of agreed and factual definition, which is:
the power or faculty of the mind by which one knows or understands, as distinguished from that by which one feels and that by which one wills; the understanding; the faculty of thinking and acquiring knowledge. LINK
In The Way as we choose to follow it, it makes no sense to create artificial divisions between what our thinking may be used for, as the philosophy itself would have no real value if it was not both intellectual and utilitarian, as thoughts without application of actions have no actual purpose. Much mileage has been and can indeed be made from the generation of beliefs about what the teachings are and were about, but to do so is to lose one’s way, to literally go off the straight and narrow path, and therefore become also lost to the pursuit of The Way itself, which is futile from the start, as you are actually avoiding the very thing you purport to seek to know. This is the false philosophy of wilful and blind avoidance, and leads to confused thinking, which is contrary to the aims of the philosophy itself. Would you not agree?
Intuition, on the other hand, can be either knowledge or belief obtained neither by reason nor by perception, instinctive knowledge or belief , or a hunch or unjustified belief. It’s basically coming to a conclusion which may or may not be correct i.e. guesswork, hunch, suspicion. LINK It’s a subjective and self-derived, throw-your-hat-at-it approach, like an emotional or knee-jerk thing, and such individuals have little insight into the workings of their own minds, though they may well believe they do, thus becoming lost in a maze of their own making. They usually accuse others of doing what they, unconsciously and unknown to themselves, are doing, as that is what they choose to know, and can only know, as they refuse to advance their perception beyond what suits them to believe.
You previously used the phrase ‘human feelings’, and in the above post you used ‘human understanding of living in tune with nature’. To live in tune with something, we have to know what it is we are dealing with, so knowledge is what is required, and not make-believe in what we wishfully want to feel it to be.
As we would tend to see things, and you can of course disagree with this, you can only be human if you use truth, logic, knowledge and reason, and reason in particular, as all else is simply base reaction to a sense of one’s own importance i.e. ego, which is awareness of one’s one self only. Maybe this is in fact not what you mean, so if you could explain otherwise, it would be good for all the other visitors to the site, as there is no point in being at cross purposes on such fundamental ideas.
Sharon Lasitter posted: It is a very poetic philosophy, not cold and logical. It uses the wisdom of each hemisphere of the brain, not just the left/logic side, as you seem to believe or as you call it “know”. It understands the vital use of both the Yin and the Yang, not just the Yang, which is what you put your focus on. The Yin Yang symbol is the wrong one for the way you practice “The Way”. You need to simply use a black sphere.
Yes, some parts of it does have something of a poetic side to it, which is fine, as it prompts the mind because of the natural rhythm or flow within the mind of the writers; but, to focus on metre, without heed to the lesson contained within the philosophy (love of wisdom), is to end up missing the point completely, which is to waste the intent of the exercise, which is to teach, and so, by teaching, learn more from the questions that arise from the thinking that the words provoke. Logic is neither ‘hot’ or ‘cold’, as it has nothing to do with emotion at all, but rather is simply clear and straightforward thinking, according to known fact at any given point. Words are provocative, but it all depends on what direction they are pointed, which is what the understanding of opposites is all about, as in the symbol, which is only to be used as a visual explanation of the various elements within the opposing forces. You don’t switch on and and turn off one side of the ‘brain’ to understand something, as though it were a machine, but use both in concert with each other, thus using all the four elements of The Way, as that is the only way to work it out. To do otherwise will result in failure, as you only look at one thing, what is pleasing to the emotional, and not balancing it by looking at the unemotional, and thereby balancing both. The Taoist/Way ‘ying-yang’ simply symbol shows that there are elemental forces at work both in opposition and in concert with each other, thereby granting choices, as otherwise sentient beings would be compelled to act according to unavoidable obligation. The Way existed before its name, as truth, knowledge, logic and reason exist within the very fabric of all that exists. Giving it a name makes no difference to what it is, as it is oblivious to what it is called.
Sharon Lasitter posted: But that isn’t my point. The fact is, the quote you used, and other quotes you have used came directly from the Tao Teh Ching, which is a copyrighted book, and credited to Lao Tzu. It wouldn’t matter if it were credited to “Little Apple Man” who was really Sherman Howell. If you take something directly from a printed source, you should give credit to the source, or you are committing plagiarism. LOL, like you don’t know that. You (or Bob) claim to own the word “caulbearer” because you printed it first!
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100525/0252289559.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching#Historical_authenticity
As the links demonstrate, there are many translations and editions of these texts, and there is no copyright to ‘Lao Tzu’, as even his alleged claim to creating them is widely questioned. The same applies to many of the adapted saying in the so-called Book of Wisdom within the biblical texts, which were the later adapted collective sayings of the same tradition. Many of the ‘Lao Tzu’ sayings make no sense, as they use words like ‘Heaven’, which is a religious notion of the habitation of a deity or deities, having being corrupted from the word ‘heavens’, meaning that which is above the earth, the firmament.
If you actually think about and then further consider some of the supposed wisdom statements from the Tao Te Ching, such as:
“Therefore the sage, in the exercise of his government, empties their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthens their bones. He constantly (tries to) keep them without knowledge and without desire, and where there are those who have knowledge, to keep them from presuming to act (on it). When there is this abstinence from action, good order is universal”,
you can can see that such saying are contradictory to reason, and therefore cannot be The Way, as truth, which is a primary pillar of The Way, never contradicts itself, as belief so often does. To encourage someone to empty their minds is to make it like a vacant space, where any sort of ideas can drift in, like the seeds of weeds into a garden. This simply is not The Way, and can never be so. To keep people without knowledge and from acting on it, is to keep them blind and ignorant, so how can such a mindset ever purport to be sourced in wisdom?
As for the issue of copyrighting the word Caulbearer, yes, there is no public record of the use of that Nazarene title anywhere before it was copyrighted in the Seven Signs, the Seven Seals and the Seven Veils, in March 2000, which was deliberately done by intent, for reasons obvious to those who do know what it about. Draft editions were also copyrighted, as is normal. There are many references to what people have been taught to believe about those born with a true Caul, but none outside the Nazarenes actually understand the realities behind it, which in some ways has actually protected the secret until the appropriate and appointed time.
If someone publishes a new or previously unpublished word, name or title, or reproduces material from a previously expired copyrighted work that is essentially different from the first work, then they are the legal possessors of that version as intellectual property, and may assign those rights to another, by expressed legal process, depending on national and international laws. The writings on the Way website do not contradict themselves, and can be understood if you use reason, but the ‘Lao Tzu’ are in many cases ambiguous, with all sorts of interpretations being possible. Truth, from our way of looking at things, should be seen and understood as is, and not be interpreted to suit ideas that come from selectively biased thinking. As the Fifth said, “Do not lay down any rules beyond what I appointed for you,”interpret not. And do not give a law like the lawgiver, lest you be constrained by it. All law is the servant of justice. Loose not this, lest you become lost in thine own mire.”
Sharon Lasitter posted: Thank you for giving me the link to the newly updated manual. I have a lot of questions, but first and foremost, how associated with the Illuminati are you, and what does that mean in terms of your ultimate goals with “The Way”?
Reply: The Order of The Way I can give some explanation on that, but before I do it would be better if you give me some idea to what you generally understand the Illuminati to be, as there are all sorts of ideas floating around, many of them way off the mark, and some more accurate than others. I can then tell you which are correct, incorrect or at least partially correct, from our way of things.
Sharon Lasitter posted in reply: As I understand it, the Illuminati was founded by Adam Weishaupt in 1774, in Bavaria. Today, they have control of the banking system – Illuminati symbols are all over the American dollar.
“The great strength of our Order lies in its concealment; let it never appear in any place in its own name, but always covered by another name, and another occupation”.
“Of all the means I know to lead men, the most effectual is a concealed mystery. The hankering of the mind is irresistible” .
— Adam (Spartacus) Weishaupt
Winston Churchill, Freemasonic, looking back at the Russian Revolution just a few years earlier, mentioned his name in the Sunday Illustrated Herald, London, February 8, 1920:
“From the days of Spartacus Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx (Moses Mordecai Levy) and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kuhn (Hungary), Rosa Luxembourg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States), this world conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence and impossible equality, has been steadily growing.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ipWYLdiag&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m89SB59DT34
Reply: The original Illuminati were and are one of the Nazarene Brotherhoods, in particular the one referred to as the Brotherhood of Light, with the word ‘light’ meaning knowledge, as that is what The Way is founded on. After the Emperor Constantine adopted the religion of the sect that followed the teachings of Paul/Saul, who never actually met Jesus, rather than that which followed The Way, yet claiming authority by alleged and believed association with the original teachings, the Desposyni and the related Way societies went underground, and at that time ‘the Brotherhood of Light’ changed its name to that of ‘the Brotherhood of the Flame’, to distinguish themselves from the sun worshipping practices of Constantine, who himself was a follower of the cult of Sol Invictus, thus causing the Roman day of rest to be designated ‘sun-day’, and consequently further removing it from the original Jewish one of Friday to Saturday. Over time, other groups sprouted up in various forms pretending to be associated with that ancient Nazarene fraternity, but when belief became interwoven with the original aims of the philosophy, the message became lost, with inevitable consequences.This is why you can see bits and pieces of an apparently similar theme in so many groups scttered all over the globe today, all claiming to be of the original root. As it says,
The Way existed before its name, and from its name the opposites evolved, giving rise to three divisions, and then to names abundant, yet of the same root.
The modern day banking groups and their attendant patrons, such as the Pilgrim Society and various Freemason groups may sometimes like to give the impression that they have some inherited reputational authority in this regard, but if and when they use their influence to do deliberate harm, which is in direct opposition to Way principles, they cannot legitimately do anything but ‘claim’ association, just as the Church of Rome claims to follow the teachings of The Way yet call it ‘the way of God’. That is not to say that they did not originally spring from the original Way philosophy, or some branch of it, but as they went off the straight and narrow, then they only truly represent whatever they have since become.
In one sense you are correct in what you say in regard to certain symbols associated with the original Illuminati being incorporated into such things as the US dollar, as members of the original Way following continued to exist within the newly established belief systems, holding outward appearances of conformity but following The Way privately, but once things are abused (wrongly used) then the purpose behind it also becomes lost. What you are looking at is now often a mix of accumulated truth and fiction, which can serve to confuse those who just believe that they know what is behind it, which is not possible unless they are instructed, and yet remain obvious to those who know the history behind the original teachings of The Tradition, as The Way is sometimes called.